We are in Northland. Where signal is sporadic but the views…oh the views!

Kai Iwi Lakes – When you first glimpse the lakes, you could be mistaken that you have travelled through a portal to the Caribbean! Turquoise waters, almost white sand – just stunning!! We have our lunch in a little cove with the lake waters lapping at our toes – well almost! It looks so inviting, one of us does the terribly British thing of rolling up our trousers, taking of our boots and socks and going for a paddle. This ends badly, with one of us slipping and crashing into the warm waters! Ah well. It’s a beautiful lake to fall into!

Trounson Kauri Park was the Department of Conservation’s (DoC) first mainland island in the Northland region of New Zealand. It was named after James Trounson, who gifted the forest to DoC. It is a huge area of land, dominated by kauri trees. It is a protected site where, if you are very, very lucky, you may hear or spot a kiwi at night! After having a great walk around the loop track, we decide to return after dark to see if we might be able to spot a kiwi. Our red torches aren’t a great help when you are wandering in a very dark forest, but it’s good for the kiwi’s. After an hour, we decide that tonight may not be our night and head back to the van.

Te Matua Ngahere – Father of the Forest – is found in the Waipoua Forest. He is not as tall as Tane Mahuta but he is older. He is thought to be between 3,000 – 3,500 years old. He is 16m around. There is something rather magical, spiritual even about being so close to such old giants of the forest. DoC are doing a huge amount of work trying to prevent the spread of kauri dieback and so even though we are a little bit disappointed not be able to see the other giants here, we know we are doing our little bit to help.

Hokianga Harbour – on the west coast of NZ where the Tasman Sea flows in, it is a huge harbour and we decide to break our journey up north with a stay here. We stop at Opononi. A great spot right on the water. There is a wealth of history here, Kupe who was a legendary Polynesian explorer who, according to Maori oral history, was the first person to discover New Zealand is said to have landed here. More recent history though tells the story of Opo the dolphin who famously swam into the harbour in 1955 and made friends with the locals, playing and swimming alongside the children and adults. She died and was buried with full Māori honours in a special plot next to the town hall.

We have fish and chips for dinner on the beach – one of the best we’ve had – even if we were surrounded by at least 20 very hungry looking seagulls! In the morning, we head, at 9am to the pub to watch the rugby. It’s a good way to start the day I think! As the road from here heading north takes you a very long way inland adding extra time to the journey, we decide to take the ferry across the harbour and so we drive around to Rawene. We find a fantastic place for coffee – https://www.facebook.com/boatshedcaferawene/ where we have excellent flat whites and a lovely slice of carrot cake before getting on the ferry. We then have a very windy road trip to our next stop for the night, Broadwood.